NPC Meshes and Textures Questions

[Hotstuff1]

Hi, I'm trying to make a personal use mod, but I have some questions about how to create it.

 

I recently found the mods Dashing Argonian Feathers and Brutish Argonian Males. I'm hoping I can combine the two separate meshes so that I would have both the feathers and the brutish meshes, but I don't know how. (I already converted the meshes from both mods so they can work with SE)

 

I tried searching the internet and I've found NPC NIF Merge, but I read that it doesn't work with SE. I also read that the same things can be done using Nifskope (I have the latest SE compatible version of Nifskope), but I don't know how to do it.

 

I'm aware that there is a similar mod called Hott Argonians that add plumage hair to BAM, but I don't like the plumage. I like DAF a lot better.

 

Before, I started my research I tried loading the esp for DAF inside the Creation Kit and combined the files from both BAM and DAF into a bsa. (BAM was only loose files and didn't have an esp) At the time I thought it would work, but of course it didn't. I also used ctrl+f4 on all of the vanilla argonian npcs with feathers to generate new face data.

 

I also made some edits on Scouts-Many-Marshes to make him more attractive (IMO). He's my skyrim husband and I made him a follower by using the AFT mod, so I'm going to be seeing him a lot. I edited his musculature to be 100% instead of the vanilla 50%. I also turned his skin color including his head and feather colors ice blue.

 

When I tested my mod in my game, I realized that there are gaps on both sides of the base of his neck and his body is now ice blue, but his head and feathers are still the vanilla colors. I did ctrl+f4 on him after making my edits and put his face gen data inside the bsa along with all of the other files from the other argonians. The feather meshes didn't work on any of the argonians, but fortunately all of the vanilla argonian males have the new brutish mesh.

 

I've been trying to do research into how to fix these problems, but I haven't really found any good answers yet. I have SOS Masculine Argonians Lizard Texture active if that makes any difference with fixing the neck base gaps. I doubt it would make a difference, but just in case.

 

 

 

 

[Hotstuff1]

I finally made some progress. I figured out how to replace the vanilla hair with the new hair and I seemed to have properly aligned it. I tested the new mesh and I got CTD when going near Scouts. I did get a warning message about the mesh being sanitized when I saved it. I searched the internet to figure out what that means and I read that the mesh being sanitized causes CTD and to turn auto sanitizing off to prevent it. I did that, but I still got CTD. I haven't tested it when it was sanitized, because I was worried about the error message. Any suggestions?

[Guest]

I could be wrong but it sounds like you are trying to load an old Skyrim mod into the new CK and save it all over to work with new Skyrim after making some changes.  I guess this may work, but I wouldn't expect 100%....I've never tried porting mods this way to be honest.  I just get the loose files from the old skyrim mods and create a fresh, new mod.  My thoughts are that with a fresh new mod, it should have less trouble.

 

I'm no pro but I would suggest getting Quick BSA Extractor.  That's if you want to get the loose files out of the BSA from DAF mod.  That's if you haven't already.  The loose files in DAF consist of just hair and hariline NIFs, along with the texture files.  Do the same extracting from Brutish Argonians to use the body meshes that are in that?  I've never used Brutish Argonians though so I'm not sure which body part meshes are inside that mod.  Or are there head meshes in there?  I tried to do some very quick internet searching for Brutish Argonian, but I found it used to be on HoT site, now move to VectorPlex site?  Once you get all the meshes, you can then implement them into your mod in the CK for your follower or race that you are creating (that is what you are creating?).  Maybe this will help you out or give some hints of what to do for your issue.

[Hotstuff1]

I already converted the individual meshes and extracted all of the files from DAF and I didn't have to extract from BAM. (BAM was just loose files without an esp or bsa)

 

BAM is only a head mesh it is not a body replacer. I'm not trying to create a race mod. What I'm trying to accomplish is to have all vanilla argonians who have feather hair be affected by DAF. There are 3 reasons why I say vanilla specifically.

 

1. I don't have any mods that add new argonians with feather hair. (They are either bald or have just horns)

 

2. While doing my research I read that I need to do vanilla face data slightly differently from mod added argonians. The mod that I'm trying to create doesn't add any new argonians it only improves the vanilla argonians. I have to create new face gen data for all the vanilla argonians with hair, because DAF by default only effects the player.

 

3. BAM has nif files for vanilla male argonians only.

The edits that I'm trying to make with Scouts are additions to the existing DAF esp and all of them are made using only the creation kit. When I was talking about musculature I meant the "weight" value in Scouts' traits tab in the creation kit. I prefer using the term musculature, because weight makes it sound like it's fat.

 

Here are a few screenshots of the new mesh in nifskope. The stretched or exploding part of the head on top was already present before I made any edits and was working in-game with no problems. (The stretching was not present in-game) The only edit I made was I added the hair. (meaning 35 (HairArgonianMale07Hairline) and everything under 35 in nifskope). 28 (HairArgonianMale07 is just the horns and not the hair and was already present, before I made my edits)

 

 

Any suggestions or advice would be appreciated. I can post more screenshots if any one has any suggestion on where to look for problems.

 

Thank you.

Edit: Woops I forgot to mention that I also deleted the old hair mesh after aligning the new hair mesh.

 

 

 

[Guest]

I think I see what you mean.  With DAF, it changes the already pre-existing feathers to a new look.  BAM changes only male heads to a new look.  You want to put both of these together in an easy way - All this I am assuming but let me know if I'm off track.

 

I haven't dug really deep in either DAF or BAM, but I'm guessing all they did was basically replace the mesh and texture files.  Naming them the same file name as what the game was already programmed for and placing them in the correct sub-folder.  Then, created the plug-in and compacted the files into BSA, etc etc.

 

Hmm....once you have only extracted the texture and mesh files to their proper sub-folders and then tested the game, it crashes on you correct?  Something like that with just loose files should just, as they say, work as intended.  I don't think a plug-in would truly be required.

 

.....does this BAM mod have separate TRI files with it too?  Again, I'm just brainstorming.

[TheWilloughbian]

That exploded part makes me think it might be a bad node. Try spells >optimize >remove bogus nodes. see if that helps. 

 

Also, it wouldn't hurt to set up some new texture paths so that you can see a little better what you are looking at.  It's hard to tell with it all grey.  

 

I'm just guessing here. I can't be certain of anything with out the mesh in front of me.

[Hotstuff1]

@Booceefus

That is exactly what I'm trying to achieve. I'm essentially trying to create a Dashing Brutish Argonian Males mod. I first used the bsa that came with DAF, but it didn't work for some reason. The brute meshes were working, but the feathers were still vanilla. I believe it's a conflict between the two meshes which led me to try to merge the feathers mesh with the brute mesh. I just tried having the files loose in the proper folders and it seems to have partially worked. Thank you for the suggestion. Unfortunately, the feathers are clipping really bad with the brute mesh. The majority of the feathers are clipping into their heads making them look like they're balding. This seems to reinforce my theory of mesh conflict. I think the clipping is the result of the feathers being aligned to the vanilla head mesh and since the brute mesh is overall bigger it causes the feathers to clip really bad. BAM doesn't have any TRI files. The CTDing only occurs with my newly created merged mesh.

 

@TheWilloughbian
Woops, I forgot about the textures. I actually had to temporarily clear out my data folder except for the files for DAF and BAM, because I needed to use the bsa list creator program from the SSE Nexus to create a single achlist file for the two mods to try to combine them. I have used it to create a few other achlists to help make bsas. I highly recommend it to anyone. It seems to work better than both the creation kit archive and archive exe (The external program that comes with the kit). I might have over explained, but I thought I would take the opportunity to recommend the program, due to my previous struggles and experiences. I'm considering sending files through PM. If anyone is interested in trying to fix the problem PM me and I will continue to consider sending files while I try to do further research. I might send them or I might not depending on what I find and whether I can resolve the problem. I would post the files on this forum or publish my newly created mod to different sites, but I don't have permission from the authors to post their mod assets to the public. Sorry for any who are interested in this mod. Thank you for attempting to help me. Let me know if you have any more suggestions.

[TheWilloughbian]

You know, I keep most of my files loose, so I have no clue what's up with BSAs. I'll use them if the mod comes with one. About all I can do with them is unpack an Oldrim bsa and repack it into a SSE bsa after I fix the meshes.  So i won't be much help to you there.  I am pretty handy with nifskope, if you want me to have a peak at one or two of the meshes. Just pm me.

 

Just out of curiosity, is there an alpha property on the extra part of the head mesh that is sticking up? 

[Hotstuff1]

VERY GOOD NEWS IT WORKED! After doing a lot of research, I eventually decided to try looking at the other argonian head meshes and try to mimic what was in them. It turns out that for some reason when I pasted the new hair mesh and deleted the vanilla hair mesh there were some "things" (for lack of a better word) created or possibly left over from the deleted mesh. I removed all of the extra stuff, while mimicking the other meshes to figure out what was supposed to be there. It seems all of my problems are fixed. Thank you for the assistance. I just mentioned the whole bsa thing for anyone who might read this forum. I would have separated the bsa stuff into a separate paragraph, but the site wouldn't let me separate it into another paragraph for some reason. Thank you, bye.